Thursday in NYC

Thursday morning we opted to travel south to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, Ground Zero and into Brooklyn to walk across the bridge looking toward Manhattan. Our original plan was that we would see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and be in Brooklyn for lunch. NOT!.


The Statue of Liberty is definitely amazing. One thing we learned that we did not previously know is that Lady Liberty is positioned in a forward motion. Her left foot is stepping forward while the right foot is slightly raised as she is proceeding forward. We have always thought she was standing straight.
Ellis Island was very interesting. We could have easily spent several hours at Ellis Island and would plan to do so if/when we visit again. The tour actually walks you through the various rooms as if you were an immigrant who had just arrived at Ellis Island. Realizing that we were well past lunch time, we grabbed a chicken sandwich at the Ellis Island café.
Once we were back in Manhattan, we ventured to Ground Zero. It was not as overwhelming as I expected. At this point, it is primarily a large construction site. We did walk through the small museum which was very touching. We left Manhattan and took the subway into Brooklyn, and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge. There are two paths…one for walkers, and one for bikes. Word to the wise….don’t walk on the bike path. They move very fast and are not very friendly if you get in their way.
Back in Manhattan, we encountered an artist using spray paint and putty knives to paint panoramic views of the city. When he was ready to dry the paint, he would light the surface with a disposable lighter to dry the paint. He used small caps, plates, etc to make arcs, moons, etc in the paintings. Simply fascinating. We probably should have bought one of his paintings.
We passed back through Grand Central and purchased a triple decker club sandwich from Junior’s, then went into the grocery/deli market and got smoked pasta salad and cole slaw which we took back to our room for dinner. We had anticipated hitting Times Square at night on Thursday evening but after almost 11 hours on our feet, the room and TV seemed like a better option!